Laboratory for Clinical Biochemistry and Haematology

General

The Laboratory for Clinical Biochemistry and Haematology conducts clinical-chemical examinations of blood and other biological material for patients undergoing treatment at the University Clinic Golnik,  and to a lesser extent for hospitals, health centres and other institutions in Slovenia. The laboratory has a dislocated unit within the Outpatient Diabetes Clinic and the Outpatient Anticoagulant Clinic at the University Clinic Golnik in Kranj. In total, it conducts more than half a million tests a year, of which about 40% are emergency tests (haematology and urine tests, stool tests, haemostasis tests, electrolyte tests, substrates, enzymes, tumoral markers and thyroid hormones ...). The established Laboratory Information System (L@bis) allows for greater efficiency and quality of the laboratory process and provides a shorter time from ordering the tests to laboratory results. The Laboratory Information System in conjunction with the comprehensive Birpis Hospital Information System allows electronic ordering of laboratory tests and sending of electronic results to clients.

For quality assurance, the Laboratory regularly performs internal and external quality controls. The first are managed and analysed by the Laboratory itself, and with external quality control of laboratory test results, the Laboratory is involved in various external quality assessment schemes (SNEQAS, INSTAND, UKNEQAS and RIQAS, BIO-RAD QCNET, TIQcon QCS, SNCS) and it regularly receives certificates on quality testing. Collaboration with the Slovenian association for clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine and liaison with experts in the European Union and beyond and the Chamber of Laboratory Medicine of Slovenia are of great help in quality assurance. The Head of the Laboratory is a member of the WG Accreditation and ISO/CEN standards working group at EFLM (European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine). She also participates in the work of the Slovenian Institute for Standardisation (SIST) in the Technical Committee on Health Protection (TC VAZ) and Slovenian Accreditation (SA).

In collaboration with the Faculty of Pharmacy, the Laboratory offers students of the Laboratory Biomedicine undergraduate programme the opportunity to conduct compulsory laboratory work in practice and to undertake internships for all levels of staff in medical laboratories. In 2017, for a part of the programme, the Laboratory became a licensed provider of specialisation in medical biochemistry; it also participates in the teaching process of both medical faculties in Slovenia.

In September 2009, the Laboratory obtained a license of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia. In accordance with the Rules on requirements to be met by laboratories performing laboratory medicine tests (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia No. 64/2004, 1/2016), in 2015 the Laboratory was reviewed by the Commission of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia and granted a license for a further five-year period.

List of laboratories licensed by the Ministry of Health for work in the field of laboratory medicine.

In December 2017, the Laboratory also obtained accreditation for medical laboratories according to the international standard SIST EN ISO 15189: Medical laboratories: quality and competence requirements (LM-001 accreditation) with the Slovenian Accreditation.

Employees

The Laboratory employs 18 people:

• 1 Head of Laboratory, Specialist in Medical Biochemistry, EuSpLM, Doctor of Science;
• 2 Medical Biochemistry Residents,
• 2 Laboratory Medicine Analysts;
• 9 Laboratory Biomedicine Engineers (4 mag. lab. biomed. (4 M.Sc Laboratory Biomedicine), 4 dipl. inž. lab. biomed. (4 B.Sc Laboratory Biomedicine), 1 inženir lab. biomed. (1 Laboratory Medicine Engineer));
• 4 Laboratory Technicians. 

Working hours

The Laboratory is open all days of the week (Monday to Friday after 8 pm, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are organised as on-call duty).